Empty Spaces

In every grade, there was always a person who was 'invisible'. Sure they were there, they'd go about doing whatever they did everyday, yet noone really notices them. Nicole was one of those people. She was quiet, timid, somewhat introverted and often sat by herself. She was a nice girl, and easily approachable, yet she didn't seem to have very many friends. As the bell rang, she picked up her books and made her way to her next class, SOSE (Study of Society and of the Environment). The previous class had arranged the desks in such a way that they formed a "U" shape around the classroom, with the teachers desk up front. Nicole walked in and sat at the desk closest to the door, towards the front, on the side of the "U". She didn't dare sit in the back, since only the 'cool' kids sat there. She opened up her notebook, and dated it, and sat quietly waiting for the class the begin.

Charlie and Jay were still in the locker room. Charlie and Jay had been mates since 8th grade. In actual honesty, in 8th grade, Jay was a complete loner. He had transferred from a different primary school from most of the other kids. So Jay pretty much knew nobody. Eventually Jay was taken in by Charlie and his group of friends. They've been mates since. Jay was a little bit of a pest at times. He liked to play pranks on his friends, and since he was the shortest and of the smallest build out of this friends, everyone saw him more as a 'little brother' and so despite his annoying antics, they all put up with it.

During lunch break, Jay had gone into Charlies bag and taken out his pencil case, and hid it in his locker. And so when they were supposed to have been in class, Charlie and Jay were still in the locker room, looking for Charlies lost pencil case. "So Charlie, are you sure you didn't leave it in your last class?" asked Jay. "I'm positive!" Charlie exclaimed, with an air of frustration. "You know we're going to be late hey? And it'll all be your fault. You and your silly pencil case!" grinned Jay. "Yeah i know! Shut up already. If i don't find it, im not going to class. I'll just pretned to be sick and go to the sick bay. Now quit your talking and help me find it!" "Alright alright... settle down".

As Charlie went over to the port racks to check if he had dropped his pencil case somewhere, Jay went to his locker, checked to make sure Charlie wasn't looking, and quickly unlocked, took out the pencil case, and locked his locker. He turned around again, and realised Charlie had already seen him. "What are you doing?" inquired Charlie. "Umm.. I was just looking... yeah just looking. Did you find it yet?" Charlie walked over, and snatched his pencil case from Jay. "You little shithead! So it was you the whole time!!" By this time Jay had a sheepish grin across his face that he just couldn't wipe off. "So is this your pencil case? I found it for you!... I swear it wasn't in my locker!" "OUCH!! That really hurt!!" exclaimed Jay as Charlie gave him a friendly punch in the shoulder. "Now come, on, we're already late enough as it is!" said Charlie, as he raced ahead.

By the time the boys got to class, all the 'cool kids' desks had been taken and the only desks free were those adjacent Nicole. "Hurry up boys, get a seat. Your late if you haven't noticed!" boomed Ms Ryan. "Sorry Miss, I had to go get my arm checked out because a 'certain someone' decided that attempting to break my poor little arm was a fun thing to do" replied Jay, jokingly. "You want the other arm broken too?" laughed Charlie as they took a seat. Jay could afford to be a bit of a smart alleck in class and joke around as he was at a good standing with Ms Ryan. In fact Ms Ryan was one of his favourite teachers. And Jay was one of Ms Ryan's favourite students so she was really quite leniant if he didn't do his homework, or came into class late. That's just how it was. Charlie and Jay sat down, beside each other with Jay in the middle between Charlie and Nicole. Nothing intentional, it just happened that way.

Half way through class, Jay got restless, and noticed that Nicole had a stapler shaped like a purple hippo. It looked rather amusing, so without even thinking about it, he reached over and grabbed it, and started playing with it. Nicole looked over at Jay. He smiled back at her. "Thats a really cool stapler. But i'm not sure if hippos are really purple. aren't they more like a ugly blue/grey colour?" Nicole didn't reply, but reached over and grabbed it back off Jay. "Hey! I was playing with that!" exclaimed Jay. "I know, but I want it back!" replied Nicole. "Awww your no fun!"

Since Jay couldn't get the satisfaction of playing with the hippo stapler, he made it his mission for the rest of the class to annoy Nicole as much as possible, to get back at her. It wasn't that Jay wanted to be an asshole or anything - he didn't have any bad motives. All he was trying to do was to get her attention, and possibly the purple hippo back. Noone knew, but Jay secretly sort of liked Nicole. Jay had 'known of' Nicole since 7th grade. She didnt know him though. He only knew her because of a Netball game he went to. We've all heard of the phrase "love at first sight". It was sort of like that except it wasn't so much 'love'. Probably more like "curiousity" at first sight. There was something about Nicole that drew Jay in. He wanted to know more about her. So what about the first 2 years of highschool? Why didn't Jay get to know her then? Well simple. Although Nicole never really had that many friends, she was super tight with the ones she did have, and every time Jay would try to get to know her, she'd shrug him off. Okay well Jay was actually really bad at breaking the ice so it wasn't really all Nicoles fault. But it was like Nicole wasn't really interested, so Jay put 2 and 2 together, and assumed that Nicole simply wasn't into him.

So back in SOSE class, whenever Nicole looked away, Jay would stealthily reach over and grab one of Nicoles assortment of pens and start scribbling with it on his pad, in an attempt to get her to notice. At first she didn't. But he scribbled away even more furiously until she looked over and said "Why are you scribbling all over your page?" "I can if i want to. Its my PEN and my book" "Okay then" "Erhem.. I said its MY PEN?! so i can scribble if i want to" "okay already. i was only asking" "Did you not get the part where i said MY PEN?" "HEY! Thats not your pen! Thats mine. give it back!" "I'll swap it for the hippo then" "No!" "Alright I'll give it back. But can i keep your eraser?" "Hey how'd you get that? I want that back too!"

"Nicole, is there something wrong?" asked Ms Ryan from across the room. Nicole turned to Jay, and gave him a smirk. In his head Jay was thinking "awww please. don't get me in trouble. i was just having a bit of fun" "No miss. I was just asking Jay a question". Relief swept over Jay. "Hey thanks for not dobbing me in. Here you can have it back". "Thankyou".

Then the bell rang to signal the end of class, and the end of the day. Nicole swiftly packed her stuff up and walked out. Jay watched her walk out the door, and through the glass he was certain that Nicole had turned back, and smiled at him. As the two friends walked out of the classroom towards the locker room, Charlie asked "What the hell was all that about before?" "oh nothing. she wouldn't give me the hippo" "what hippo?" "the purple one with metal teeth of course!!" "haha yeah right! You like her don't you?" "No way!!! Besides, shes not my type." "ooooohhh Jay and Nicole sitting in a tree......" "shuttup dude!" "hey stop that!! You punch like a girl you know?" exclaimed Charlie as Jay punched him in the shoulder. "I can also scratch your face off like a girl too if you like" laughed Jay.

The boys got to the lockeroom and packed up their books, grabbed their bags and walked out the school gate. Jay had to go catch a bus where as Charlie got picked up by his mum. "I'll see you tomorrow dude" said Charlie "yeah you too! And remember, double Religion class tomorrow so bring your MP3 player!" called Jay. "Yup no worries. see you dude" "See ya!"

Jay sat at the bus stop by his lonesome as he watched his friends drive pass. It wasn't all bad though, because this was his quiet time.